Virtuality
by allthistosay
Summary: Finn and Blaine met online during Season 1. All goes as canon through the end of Season 2, but what happens when Finn finds out that the guy he's been being a jerk to cause let's face it, Finn's a total douchenozzle in season 3 is his best online friend. What's it like on Blaine's side? Featured Klaine. BLANGST
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hi! I'm Abby and I'll be your writer for this fic. I've had this idea for a while and I _finally_ started it. I really hope you like it!**

**Chapter One**

**Finn.**

Do you know that moment that feels like your entire world is caving in on its self and all you can do is sit back in a recliner, play video games or surf the web, and pretend that you're even close to okay? God knows Finn Hudson did as he gave up on a level of Call of Duty that usually came easily to him and switched to Internet Explorer1 in another window. What he really needed now was someone to talk to. Someone who'd give an outside opinion on the situation, but wouldn't judge.

**Username:** CODhaloFTW

**Password:** **********

Finn had set up the account at Puck's request (Well, that was one person he didn't want to think about right now) over a year ago so that they could have a chat room with all the guys on the football team. He clicked his way into a random chat room where just one other username was present under his own.

**In this room:**

**CODhaloFTW**

**Im.**

Drumming his fingers lightly on the keyboard of the HP laptop that he had begged for at Christmas the previous year, he deliberated what to open with. Before he could type anything out, the a small beep alerted him to the other person's message.

** .Me:** Hello

Finn tapped out a response and pressed enter.

**CODhaloFTW:** hi. what's up?

_** .Me **__is typing…_

He waited.

**Blaine.**

It's stressful, always looking over your shoulder everywhere you go; keeping an eye out for an unfriendly glare or a rude tone; hearing threats; finding bottles of pills and pre-written suicide notes (so as to save you the trouble) in your locker. The constant fear that all of this left one in was difficult enough without the addition of the parents into the equation.

Blaine's father was a politician. That meant a few things; one being that his image and that of his family and social life was very important to him. So, while on most occasions their family is distant, cold, and anything but close, they were always ready to pose for the camera and be the trophy family that Mr. Anderson wanted them to be. It also meant that he was away a lot. Blaine never minded this, especially after he came out and the rift in their family widened. There were a lot of nights spent at home watching movies alone, or after coming home from less fortunate days at school, putting ointment on a bruise (from which you could clearly read numbers of a combination lock) himself.

His mother was a nice woman, Blaine supposed. He rarely got opportunities to actually speak with her. Her first love was the world. Her second was his father's credit card. She got free reign to his money and travelled throughout the continents (Europe was a particular favorite of hers) and shopped. So long as she was home for important holidays and the occasional press conference, that was fine.

He had a brother too, but he hit the road as soon as he got out of high school. Blaine couldn't blame him, but there was a part of him, a bigger part than he would ever admit that wished Cooper had stuck around just a bit longer. He still called, time to time, to chat, but it wasn't the same. Even though he could be a little critical and a tad controlling, Blaine had worshipped the ground Cooper walked on when he was younger. And though he grew older and the sun no longer rose in his brother's eyes, his childhood hero had already gone by that time.

So, yes, Blaine Anderson had a lot on his mind and no friends close enough for him to really talk to. And that was what he needed, wasn't it? Someone to talk to. Sighing, he pressed in the power button of the computer sitting on his desk (the payoff from saving his Christmas and Birthday money for three years) and loaded Google Chrome. After checking his email (an advertisement for a car dealership and an iTunes Receipt) and opening Pandora, Blaine typed in the URL to a chat site that Cooper told him to sign up for just before he left with the promise that they'd chat every day (they didn't).

**Username:** .Me

**Password: *********

Rapping his fingers against his desk, he waited for it to pull up a fresh chat room. It was only a matter of minutes before a second person joined the chat.

_**CODhaloFTW**__ has entered the chat room._

He wrote out his greeting.

** .Me:** Hello

**CODhaloFTW:** hi. what's up?

** .Me:** Not much. How are you?

_**CODhaloFTW **__is typing…_

**Finn.**

_How are you? _The question itself was not difficult; he felt like shit; but the whole other question of how to respond was a little harder. Did he want to immediately dump all the crap he was feeling onto some stranger on the internet and run the risk of them disconnecting? That question quickly disappeared in his mind, because _fuck it._

**CODhaloFTW: **not very good, actually. it's been a long day.

** .Me: **I'm sorry. Do you want to talk about it?

And just like that, Finn told him everything. He spilled every detail about how his girlfriend slept with his best friend and got pregnant to some random guy on the internet.

** .Me: **Wow. I don't know what to say. That's rough. I'm really sorry that happened to you.

**CODhaloFTW: **it's okay. not your fault. thanks for the sympathy.

** .Me: **Anytime. So, what are you gonna do? Do you think you'll forgive your friends?

He considered the question. To be honest, he wasn't sure. They were his friends, but how could they keep something like that from him. At least Rachel had the guts to tell him.

**CODhaloFTW: **I don't know. it'd be hard. they're performing soon at the sectionals for our glee club. it's stupid and I'm mad at them but I still kind of wish I was there. I feel bad about leaving them with not enough people to perform so they had to get some random kid who doesn't sing. and it sorta sucks not knowing what's going on.

** .Me: **Well, maybe you could still go. If not to perform, at least to watch. Or call someone and find out how it's going.

**CODhaloFTW: **maybe.

And he thought about it.

**CODhaloFTW: **I have to go. I'll save your username. maybe we can chat again another time. it was cool talking to you.

** .Me: **Alright. Sure, that'd be nice. Bye.

**CODhaloFTW:**see you later.

When Finn pulled out of the driveway, he really intended to go straight to the theater and watch his friends (kind of?) perform. When he reached the end of the block, he realized that there was no way he was doing that. He just couldn't. He wasn't strong enough to do that. And when it came to it, he turned right instead of left and drove to the school instead.

When Finn entered the school, he did plan to go to the Spanish room and ask how the Glee Club was doing, but then he found himself walking towards the locker room instead. And then he was packing his football stuff into a bag, just for an excuse to be there.

But then there were footsteps behind him and a voice said, "Hey, Finn."

After what was perhaps a well needed outburst, their conversation ended with three words.

"No, I didn't." It took a second to process what he meant, but that was it. Mr. Schuster was right; he couldn't be there. But Finn could. And you know, maybe he was strong enough.

**Blaine.**

Four or five hours after their original conversation, Blaine received a private message.

**CODhaloFTW: **hey. I just wanted to thank you. and also to tell you that we won. :)

Blaine grinned, because, maybe he didn't talk out his own problems, but he helped someone with theirs. And he couldn't help but feel a little bit proud of himself that he made a difference, no matter how small, in someone's life. Even if it was someone he'd never met, and odds were that he never would.

**1****That was me poking fun at Finn Hudson, as he is not one of my favorite characters. I do not think Internet Explorer is an acceptable browser, nor do I endorse its usage. Please do not try using Internet Explorer at home.**

**A/N: Thanks so much for reading! I've had this idea floating around my head for the longest time, and I'm glad I finally wrote out the first chapter. I'll do my best to update soon. Please let me know what you thought in the comments!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Wow. Um. Long time. Sorry. I'm awful I know. More at the end of the chapter.**

**Chapter Two**

** CODhaloFTW: **hey man. what's going on?

** .Me: **Nothing much. How's it going with you?

** CODhaloFTW: **you know, it's actually going pretty good. there's this girl and I kinda like her and I didn't even let myself think about that when…you know. but now…it seems like a possibility.

** .Me: **That's great! I'm happy for you.

** CODhaloFTW: **so what about you? got a girlfriend or anything?

_** .Me **__is typing…_

**Blaine.**

There's a defining moment in a friendship whenever you tell someone something important about yourself that could potentially change their opinion about you. And the opportunity to tell someone something like that poses a question: will they accept that? And how will it affect the friendship?

** .Me: **No…I don't.

This guy, Blaine's new friend. He was nice, but he'd had too many people run away the second he said "gay". It'd been a while since he'd had a friend; a real one; and he didn't want to screw this up so early, even it was just some guy on the internet.

**CODhaloFTW: **ah, that's too bad. you'll find someone.

** .Me: **Maybe.

**CODhaloFTW: **so what's your life like? you never really said anything about it.

Again, he was faced with the question of what to say. Should he mention the bullying or the loneliness or the hurt he felt half his life?

** .Me: **Oh, you know. Pretty quiet.

**CODhaloFTW: **what are your friends like? you're giving me nothing here.

And that was something he couldn't just deflect and blatantly lie about.

** .Me: **I keep to myself mostly. There's one guy who I'm kind of friends with, but we're not that close…

**CODhaloFTW: **oh….that sucks. everyone should have good friends.

** .Me: **Yeah, well… I used to have more friends, but…now I don't.

**CODhaloFTW: **why? what happened?

Blaine kicked himself mentally for bringing that up.

** .Me: **Guess we just grew apart.

**CODhaloFTW: **oh. ok. that's too bad.

And he let it go, just like that. Thank god.

**Finn.**

The two boys quickly grew amiable and soon had exchanged emails and were chatting every day. Finn used the friendship as an escape from the in-person friends that he was having issues with due to obvious reasons. They didn't use names with each other; the one time that was brought up, they decided to just go with first initials. B. B was a nice guy. He wasn't very forthcoming, but that was okay, cause he listened to (or rather, read) Finn's problems and offered kind advice.

Their conversations weren't that deep or meaningful, but it was a good change to have an outside opinion on the little things going on in his life. It's a sort of Walking to Glee club one day, Finn mentioned the budding friendship to Rachel, who had immediately jumped on him for trusting strangers online who were "probably just out to molest or kill" him. He'd been quick to defend it; explaining that they didn't even know each other's first names (which seems odd, but it hadn't even come up in their conversations- it was hardly a necessary or relevant detail), let alone any substantial information that would let either find the other.

"There are all kinds of technology that tracks IP addresses and things like that! He could know all about you!" Rachel had replied animatedly. Finn merely rolled his eyes and tuned out from her lecture. She meant well, she really did. And she was sort of pretty, in a dorky sort of way. And she smelled good. Not to mention her voice… He shook his head to clear it and caught the tail end of Rachel's speech.

"…which is just what happened in Yentl." He'd sat through that entire movie with his mom once (and he even paid attention after she told him that the dude in it played Inigo Montoya) and couldn't imagine how she'd gotten from strangers on the internet, to that. Shrugging mentally, Finn put it down to her _just being Rachel_. However, he didn't bring up his friend again.

Later that afternoon, he logged on.

_**CODhaloFTW **__is online._

Almost instantly, he got a message.

** .Me: **I'm going to a dance, for the first time in my life.

**CODhaloFTW: **sweet dude! you got a date?

** .Me: **Sort of. We're just going as friends, but it's promising. Maybe.

**CODhaloFTW: **awesome. when is it?

** .Me: **Tomorrow night. It was sort of last minute, but I'm really looking forward to it.

**CODhaloFTW: **good for you man. best of luck to you with your "date"

** .Me: **Thanks a lot. I've actually got to go- I'm gonna go find my brother's old suit.

**CODhaloFTW: **alright seeya later then. let me know how it goes.

** .Me: **Sure. Bye.

He didn't log on the next day, or the day after that. Weeks passed and Finn never heard from "** .Me**".

**CODhaloFTW: **hey

For a while, he figured that the other boy was just busy.

**CODhaloFTW: **hey dude

It wasn't that unreasonable; he was probably taking finals or something.

** CODhaloFTW: **hi long time no chat

But then Christmas time came and went and there was no word from him. Surely he would have had some free time over break?

**CODhaloFTW: **where've you been?

Maybe he went on vacation. But wouldn't he have mentioned it?

**CODhaloFTW: **hello?

Or something?

**CODhaloFTW:** are you gone or something?

It was mid-January, come on, it'd been ages.

**CODhaloFTW: **hiiiiiiii

February.

** CODhaloFTW: **what happened to you?

March.

** .Me: **hi.

**Blaine.**

Blaine woke up in the St. Mary's Hospital on February 13. The Westerville High Sadie Hawkins Dance had taken place on December 6. Two months and seven days, he'd been comatose. He'd broken and cracked ribs (two broken, three cracked, all already healed), his leg was in a cast, there was loads of internal bruising (and external, for that matter), most of the bones in his right hand had shattered, and Blaine knew none of these details as he blinked awake and squinted until the dull white room came into focus. The first thing he registered was that he was in the hospital (probably the same one that he'd once visited an aunt who'd had leukemia at). The first thing he registered was almost instantaneously interrupted by the second thing, which was the burning pain that he couldn't even pinpoint where it was coming from. Blaine might have yelled, if he was confident that he could speak, but his throat was dry and he doubted any sound would come from it. The pain didn't last long anyway Or rather, Blaine didn't.

The next time he woke up (about a day and a half later), the pain had been dulled down by some strong analgesic. A nurse was fumbling around in a pantry above the sink by the door. He coughed. She spun around and came closer, pressing a button on the bed that Blaine didn't have the energy to roll around and read what its function was.

"What happened?" he croaked out.

**A/N: So, it's been a couple months. I could use the excuse that I've been busy with school and extracurricular and all that, but although true, it's hardly the reason I haven't updated. Plain and simple, I am a bad updater. I don't write unless I feel like it and have inspiration and I debated posting this because I don't trust myself to update regularly. I'd like to try for at least once a month, but I really can't make any promises, because I am fickle. I really didn't expect to write this tonight; I was totally set just to sit and play Sims, but then Word opened on accident and I typed out an entire chapter. I'd like to write ahead, just to have something to post when I'm being lazy and not posting, so I'll probably try and write out chapter three, or at least a bare outline of it so I can post somewhat regularly, but you really shouldn't trust me on anything I say about updates.**


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